Weekly game thread: May 7 – May 13

The Yankees had a terrible week last week after dropping 3-of-4 to the Orioles and Royals and losing Mariano Rivera. People are complaining about complacency early on too. You know what would turn that around? Beating the pants off the Rays and then victimizing the weak Seattle Mariners this week. I’d like to see them go 5-1 to bounce back.

The rain threatened this one, but they got the entire game in as Nova and Shields were both strong early. The Yankees bats wore Shield down though and hit a pair of homers off him and knocked him out after six innings. They got two more runs off the bullpen on Ibanez’s second homer of the day and then an RBI-double by Mark Teixeira in the 9th.

Nova was good, especially early. He was getting a lot of swings and misses with his slider and curveball and racked up eight strikeouts over seven innings. He started getting hit a bit more later on, but managed to escape with the lead. Rafael Soriano made it interesting by giving up a run in the 8th and D-Rob loaded them up in the 9th, but in classic Robertson-fashion, he used the strikeout to escape the jam.

The Yankees offense didn’t show up on Wednesday night, but David Phelps and the bullpen got a 1-0 lead to D-Rob in the 9th. Unfortunately Robertson’s Houdini act wasn’t on tonight as he gave up a couple of hits, then a walk to load the bases with no outs. He then failed to navigate through the 2-3-4 hitters, the big blow a 3-run home run off the bat of Joyce to put the Rays up 4-1, the eventual final score.

All of the offense came in the first inning as the Yankees scored a run in the first when Derek Jeter singled and Robinson Cano drove him in with a RBI-double. After that the bats went to sleep. They really didn’t even have any good chances to score after the 2nd inning as Jeff Neimann completely handled them.

Phelps pitched decently. He ran into trouble in the 1st, but escaped without giving up a run. He was strong in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings, but again ran into trouble in the 5th as the Rays loaded the bases with two outs. Boone Logan came in and got the Yankees out of trouble.

CC Sabathia is on fire right now. He put the Yankees on his back Thursday night as he struckout 10 over eight innings and allowed just two runs, none earned. It is the fourth consecutive start where he threw at least eight innings as he has put his slow start, two bad games, behind him.

The Yankees bats did their job too, as they scored five runs off the tough young lefty Price. After the Yankees fell behind 2-0 on a pair of Eduardo Nunez errors, Granderson hit a solo shot and Chris Stewart picked up an RBI-single to tie it in the 2nd. Then a Cano 2-run shot and a RBI-double by Andruw Jones put them up 5-2 in the 5th.

The Rays picked up one run in the 9th off Soriano, but he pitched strong despite that run. Will Rhymes picked up a soft single, stole second, and advanced to third and home on ground balls. With a 3-run lead at the time it wasn’t a big deal.

The Yankees have struggled this season against pitchers they aren’t familiar with, but for the second night in a row they beat a team’s ace as Kuroda outdueld King Felix Friday night.

Kuroda surrendered two solo shots and nothing else over seven innings and the bullpen held the Mariners scoreless over the final two innings. David Robertson got the final two outs on just six pitches.

The Yankees got a 1st inning run off King Felix on a RBI-single by Robinson Cano, who went 4-for-4 on the night. They were then held silent until Ibanez blasted a 3-run homer off Hernandez in the 6th inning. They added two insurance runs on a 2-run shot by Jones in the 8th inning to go up 6-2.

Phil Hughes might finally be turning his slow start around. He pitched 7.2 innings and only allowed one earned run, a solo shot by Mike Carp in the 7th inning. Other than that, he was great as he had a devastating fastball/curveball combo and mixed in an effective changeup very well.

Boone Logan came on in relief and struck out four batters in 1.1 innings. He now has 21 strikeouts in 14.2 innings this season.

The Yankees offense struck early in this game as Hector Noesi was getting hit hard. He gave up four runs in the 2nd inning, back-to-back RBI-doubles by Ibanez and Russell Martin which was capped off with a 2-run shot by Nix. They added insurance runs in the 4th and 8th, a homer by Ibanez and a RBI-single by Robinson Cano, who extended his hitting streak to 10.

About Rob Abruzzese

Rob Abruzzese created Bronx Baseball Daily in 2008 just before graduating from Brooklyn College. He currently serves BBD as its editor and works as a reporter at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Follow Rob on Twitter @RobAbruzzese.